The end result was expected, but the methods certainly weren't. After a dead lackluster start, Tennessee came back in force - and it wasn't thanks to Jeronne Maymon, either. Amazingly, Dwight Miller and Jordan McRae led the charge back before Maymon, Cameron Tatum, and Trae Golden came in to help finish the job.

This game certainly didn't look good at the start. Ole Miss jumped out to a quick 15-2 lead thanks to Terrance Henry and Murphy Holloway combining to physically dominate the Vols for the better part of the first six minutes of the game. Frustrated, Cuonzo Martin basically did a complete subbing out of the starters (with the exception of Jeronne Maymon) to see if that would provide a spark.

It worked. Tennessee promptly (well, as promptly as this team does anything on offense) went on a 21-2 run over the next 6 minutes thanks to Miller and McRae dropping seven each on that run. Somewhere in there, the rest of the game fell into place - defense, rebounding, ball control to an extent (although that took until the second half to really get nailed down) - so when the Rebels responded with a late 9-0 run to close the first half, it didn't feel like the game was over. It felt a little like the last gasp.

The second half was straight anaconda. Ole Miss had a chance according to the scoreboard, but there was no way they were going to actually come back. A 31-30 Tennessee deficit turned into a 39-33 Tennessee lead turned into a 47-39 Tennessee lead turned into a 60-50 Tennessee lead and by that point, it was just too late.

I'm floored at the team maturity in a game like this; quite frankly, I thought this game was over after the 15-2 Revel opening. After that, the Vols outscored the Rebels 71-45, which is just absurd for a team that is still in many ways a year away. (We're not talking NCAA here, don't start. There's too far to come and not enough time to get there.) That's a credit to CCM, who I'm becoming more and more impressed with as days go by.

McRae gets the POG award with 16 points, 6 boards, 4 assists, and one thundering tomahawk dunk that will show up on highlight reels for at least a night. Miller gets some serious props for an out-of-nowhere 10 points, 7 boards, and 2-3 from beyond the arc . Game notes are below the fold.

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	February 22, 2012 Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, TN 7:00 PM ET TV: SECN (?) Internet TV: ESPN
14-13 (6-6) NR		15-11 (5-7) NR

Jackson the Mule says . . .

. . . #beatmississippistate. That is all.

Leave your pre-, in-, and post-game thoughts below.

Two weeks to go, everybody's now played twelve games, and half the league is still in gridlock. It's clear at the top: Kentucky is 12-0 and can clinch at least a share of the league title tonight. Florida and Vanderbilt will battle for second place and better NCAA seeding. After that, it's a mess: four teams at 6-6, two more at 5-7. Here's how we rank them this week:

1. Kentucky - 26-1 (12-0) - RPI 4 - KenPom 1 - BPI 1

Games Remaining: at Mississippi State, Vanderbilt, Georgia, at Florida

Kentucky has played six single digit games all year: a 73-72 win over North Carolina and loss at Indiana, 69-62 vs Louisville, 65-62 at Tennessee, 77-71 over Alabama, and 69-63 over Vanderbilt. Six out of twenty-seven games. Average margin of victory: nineteen points. For teams hoping to make that magic run in New Orleans and steal an NCAA Tournament bid, including Tennessee, you'd better hope the Cats finish 16-0 and if a wake-up call is ever coming, they save it for the SEC Tournament. Best of luck to the rest of us on that one.

2. Florida - 21-6 (9-3) - RPI 17 - KenPom 14 - BPI 10

Games Remaining: Auburn, at Georgia, at Vanderbilt, Kentucky

Perhaps the most impressive week in all of college basketball belonged to the Gators over the last seven days. Reeling after a twenty point loss at Kentucky and the home loss to us, a Gator team whose only road wins were at South Carolina and at Ole Miss went to Tuscaloosa and Fayetteville. Alabama was shorthanded, but we saw Saturday that team can still play...and Florida beat them 61-52. Then they went to Arkansas to face a team that was 17-0 at home...and beat them by thirty. Florida shot 13 of 23 from the arc, 56.5%. They're now at 39.6% as a team on the year, 15th nationally. So just an average performance keeps them in just about any game...but if they got hot, they can beat anyone.

3. Vanderbilt - 19-8 (8-4) - RPI 24 - KenPom 24 - BPI 26

Games Remaining: South Carolina, at Kentucky, Florida, at Tennessee

Joining Florida's win at Arkansas and our two wins over those same Gators on the "most impressive thing an SEC team not named Kentucky did this year" list was Vanderbilt's win at Ole Miss last week: 102-76. Doing the Gators one better, Vandy shot 12 of 19 (63.2%) from the arc in Oxford, keeping them atop the SEC leaderboard at 40.2% from the arc for the year. Again, the last SEC team to shoot over 40% from the arc in a single season won the National Championship in 2007. With three overtime losses, I still feel like this team is much better than their record and will likely be much better than their NCAA Tournament seed.

After the jump, the train wreck.

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Football. How do you feel about CBS maybe not broadcasting the Tennessee-Florida game for the first time in 16 years this fall? I have mixed emotions. When we were doing well, I loved Verne and whomever Gary Danielson's predecessor was. That Danielson's arrival roughly coincided with Urban Meyer's and Tim Tebow's time at Florida may not be fair to Danielson, but it is what it is, and what it is for me is a level of disdain of which I am almost ashamed yet all too happy to embrace anyway. And he and time have ravaged Verne, so for me, my initial thought is something along the lines of "Well, as long as we're spring cleaning, we might as well throw this out, too." How about you?

I was initially very interested in reading this article on Dave Hart from al.com, but I was too surprised and distracted by the stink of troll breath to enjoy it. Like chocolate and garlic, I enjoy both fan perspective media and objective mainstream media, but it's best if they don't pass my palate at the same time.

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Maybe it's just the state of Mississippi. Maybe it's knowing that you have far more talent than your opposition and can coast. Maybe it's the gravy. Whatever the reason, the Lady Vols went 2-for-2 in sleepwalking through games against Mississippi State and Ole Miss.

The catalysts today weren't the same women who carried the Kentucky win; instead, the combination of Glory Johnson, Vicki Baugh, and Cierra Burdick shouldered most of the load. While we've come to expect that from Glory, it doesn't normally fall to Baugh and Burdick to shoulder the load, but at least someone on the bench was awake. Baugh in particular was instrumental in the 10-2 run to close the first half, hitting the first two shots of the run. Then again, Burdick hit the last three of that run.

It bears noting that there's yet another guard we can add to the list of guards who have gone off against the Lady Vols; Valencia McFarland had a stellar shooting night, going off for 21 points (although it should be noted that it wasn't the most efficient game, since it took 21shots to get there). Aside from her, though, Ole Miss struggled from the field, needing to be bizarrely hot from beyond the arc to even keep it close; on the game, they barely made more field goals (22) than they had turnovers (16), which isn't exactly a recipe for awesome.

Game notes, such as they are, are below the jump. Your breadsticks go to Cierra Burdick, who had 10 points in only 18 minutes of action.

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	February 19, 2012 Oxford, MS (Ox Vegas, MS? Nah, that doesn't sound right) 2:00 PM EST TV: SECN / ESPN3 Internet Audio: Lady Vols Network Live Stats: GameTracker
19-7 (10-3 SEC) #13 (AP) #10 (USA Today) #4 RPI		12-14 (2-11 SEC) NR (AP) NR (USA Today) #180 RPI

Just in case the snoozer of a 57-41 victory in Starkville wasn't enough of a potential mismatch, the Lady Vols continue the All-Dregs Tour of the greater Mississippi schools with a visit to scenic Oxford. Incidentally, this is the second visit in a row to the Tad Pad; through a couple of scheduling quirks, Tennessee's second game against the Lady Rebels was in Oxford last year, and this is the only match-up between these two teams.

And yes, that is one of the more interesting points of this game. Otherwise? This game is going to be a massacre. Ole Miss has had a habit of getting run off the court in the first half against average teams before their opponents have pity on them and let off the gas a bit. This bodes well for a team like Tennessee, who needs experience not letting off the gas against overmatched opponents. As much as I'd love to talk up the dangers of facing a conference opponent on the road, there's challenges and then there's this. Case in point: last year's Ole Miss team scored 87 points total against the Lady Vols in two games; the Ladies scored 86 in their home game alone. This isn't going to be much of a contest, but if you want blood, this will work.

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